Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Down 0.4% on Insider Selling

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s stock price was down 0.4% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $155.05 and last traded at $155.76. Approximately 4,540,193 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 22,268,205 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.33.

Specifically, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 22,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.29, for a total value of $3,291,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,377,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,832,416.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Ruth Porat sold 48,077 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.22, for a total transaction of $6,597,125.94. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,777,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $243,854,485.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 251,339 shares of company stock worth $36,377,482 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 12.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GOOG shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Alphabet from $150.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Alphabet from $172.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Alphabet from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Alphabet from $154.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $159.86.

Alphabet Trading Up 0.6 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $147.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $141.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. The firm has a market cap of $1.95 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The information services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $86.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $85.28 billion. Alphabet had a return on equity of 27.22% and a net margin of 24.01%. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 6.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Alphabet

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. HWG Holdings LP purchased a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Equitec Proprietary Markets LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Alphabet during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.